Protesting inequality - Harassment and protest in India - Essay Example

 Protesting inequality: Harassment and protest in India On 16th December 2012 in new Delphi, India, a 23-year-old female medical student, Jyoti Singh Pandey was brutally raped (gang raped) and beaten in a private bus she was traveling in with a male friend. All the six passengers on the bus including the driver raped the student and beat her friend; the girl died fifteen days after the incident while receiving treatment. This event resulted in the 2012s protests in India's major cities also triggering the protests by women in attempt to win equitable rights for women [Gha88]. All the protests in India on equal rights for women revolves around major issues that Indian women face, these issues include domestic violence, female feticide and infanticide, dowry and rape. Rape is among the fastest growing crime in India compared to robbery, murder, and kidnapping. Report on national crime records bureau shows that in every 60 minutes two women are raped in India. The report recorded 348 rape cases in the year 2006, other recorded cases related to sexual harassment included indecent gazes, brushes and teasing. Another problem that resulted in the protests is domestic violence; in India, society men being the heads of the family possess the right to beat their wives. Women in these cases are the inferiors, and the subordinate partners. The societal pressures, on the other hand, force the Indian women to maintain this status quo, which in turn encourages wife beating. In India, women are faced with problems in almost all aspects of life, may it be accessed to healthcare, access to property rights or even employment. Gender discrimination is an enormous problem in the Indian society, the country's traditional patriarchal norm relegate the Indian women to a secondary status within the workplace and household. This drastically affects the women's financial status, health, political involvement, and even education [Nai07]. In India women are married young, become young mothers at a young age that then burdens them with stringent financial and domestic responsibilities. A great number of women in India are malnourished as traditionally they should be the last to eat and last to receive medical attention. In relation to education 76%, men in India are educated while only 54% of women are educated; they receive little or no schooling and suffer from unfair and biased divorce and inheritance laws [Pan08]. Currently to generate change the Indian people use the anti-reservation protests, in these protests they push for integration of women into all the sectors mostly education, and also push for a revision of the existing policies. Another tactic people use to improve the conditions for women is the use of social media. In these, the people understand that the media possesses immense power in regard to influencing masses. In these, they ensure that the media covers all the women issues in India bringing them open to the public. In India, Television is one of the pervasive and powerful media that women use to ensure that their message is communicated to the public [Pan08]. Faithful patriots: religion and nationalism Islam is the official religion in Pakistan; the country has the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia. The 2007 census found that 96% of Pakistanis total population was Muslim with 20% being Shia and 76% Sunni. Historically, Islam arrived in Pakistan back in 711CE, after Umayyad dynasty sent a Muslim Arab army against the ruler of Sindh. This arrival of the Arab Muslims in Punjab and Sindh set the stage for the religious boundaries in South Asia. This arrival later led to the development of modern state Pakistan as well as the development of Islamic rule that later quickly spread to most of South Asia. By the time of Pakistanis partition, almost 70% of the total population was made up of Muslims. In 1947, the country's population comprised of only 23% non-Muslim citizens, over the years the proportion has decreased to only 3%. This Islam domination has impacted greatly on the non-Muslims in Pakistani, currently these non-Muslim groups such as the Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs are targets for suicide bomb attacks. The Islam religion in Pakistan forces these minorities to convert to Muslims and torch their houses of worship. The Islam religion in Pakistan attacks even the graveyards for the non-Muslim, current reports show excavated and vandalized graveyard for both Christians and the Ahmadis in Pakistan. The Hindus in Balochistan and Sindh provinces are primary targets for the increased ransom kidnappings and killings. The attacks against the religious minorities in Pakistani keep on increasing with the crimes against them becoming more heinous. For example, the Islam religion burns the non-Muslims accused of blasphemy alive outside police stations with no culprits punished or identified [Isp13][Isl]. The Islam religion in Pakistani plays a major political role that ranges from conservatism, Islamization to even the constitution. In the constitution these role played by Islam has changed over time, after the death of Jinnah in 1948; the prime minister directed his efforts on integrating the religion into the constitution. These efforts resulted in the passing and the promulgation of the objective which resulted in the declaration of the Islam as the state's main religion. This politicization of the Islam religion resulted in the oppression of the non-Muslim religions. The government of General Muhammad pushed for Islamization as the primary policy in Pakistan; this government instilled Hudood ordinances against alcohol consumption and fornication. The government also placed laws relating to blasphemy, in most instances these laws fell on the non-Muslim with the believe that they committed blasphemy for not being of the Muslim religion. The Islam also played a political role in Islamic revivalism; in these, the leaders opposed populism and socialism. With the winning of the PPP after the 1970 general elections, the leader Ali Bhutto initiated the land reforms laws and the nationalization program. Bhutto also instilled the law that banned Muslims from horse racing and selling and drinking wines in night clubs [Kal14]. The distribution of the different religions in Pakistan affects the relationship between all the religions in the country; mostly this distribution makes other minority religions prone to discrimination by the Islam religion. The Hindus in Pakistani makes 2%; Christian make 1.6% of Pakistan's total population, there are only 20, 000 Sikhs and 79000 Baha'is in Pakistan [Vio14]. References Gha88: , (Ghadially, 1988), Nai07: , (Nair, 2007), Pan08: , (Pandya, 2008), Isp13: , (Ispahani, 2013), Isl: , (Islam in Pakistan, n.d.), Kal14: , (Kaleem, 2014), Vio14: , (Violence towards religious communities in Pakistan, 2014), Read More